Man stabbed at Allentown bus terminal; 2 women in custody

Two women taken into custody after shouting match in downtown Allentown.

July 10, 2013|By Frank Warner, Of The Morning Call

A man was stabbed at the LANTA bus terminal in downtown Allentown on Wednesday afternoon in a scuffle with two women pushing baby carriages.

Wilbert Williams, 48, of Allentown was taken away in a city EMS ambulance after the 5:05 p.m. stabbing at the terminal near Seventh and Linden streets.

Police Capt. Jorge Medero described Williams' wound as minor.

"He had a couple of stitches," Medero said three hours later. "He's already released. He's going to be fine."

City detectives still were investigating, he said, but "there are going to be some charges, probably for all three of them."

The two women, sisters in their 20s who were not identified, were taken away in separate city police cars. Police were trying to determine who did the stabbing.

Medero said the confrontation began as one of the sisters stopped at the bus terminal with the two baby strollers while the other sister shopped nearby. Williams came by arguing with another woman, and the sister watching the babies told him to quiet down, he said.

"That escalated into a verbal argument, which escalated into a physical confrontation with the older sister," he said. "The one sister went to the other sister's aid, and in the process the male got a minor stab wound.

"He didn't even know he was stabbed. They were separated by some bystanders, and that's when we got involved."

After one sister left in a police cruiser with her hands cuffed, the other denied her sister had stabbed the man.

"She didn't commit anything," she told police and bystanders. "She was trying to get him off of me."

She said the man's earlier yelling was upsetting the children, and he reacted angrily when she told him to be quiet.

She said her sister is pregnant and wasn't looking for trouble. At first, she denied either sister stabbed the man, but after police found a small pocket knife in one of the baby carriages, she admitted to the stabbing.

"I did it," she said as LANTA buses steered around police cars at the terminal. "I'm the one who stabbed him."

A few minutes later, at 5:35 p.m., police took her away. Her right arm appeared to be covered with blood, but her hands were not cuffed when she got into the police cruiser.

A witness said the second woman stabbed the man after he fell against her and then came at her a second time.

"He tripped into her and she ended up stabbing him in the back," the witness said. "She went into her pocket and pulled the knife. Then she put it in her pocket real quick, and he started going at it again."

The sisters' babies, a boy and a girl, were left at the bus terminal with another woman. She was in tears after she talked with police.